The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.
In a networked information or data communications system, a user has access to one or more terminals which are capable of requesting and/or receiving information or data from local or remote information sources. An example of a networked information or data communication system is the Internet.
In such a communications system, a terminal may be any type of processing system, computer or computerised device, personal computer (PC), mobile, cellular or satellite telephone, mobile data terminal, portable computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), pager, thin client, or any other similar type of digital electronic device. The capability of such a terminal to request and/or receive information or data can be provided by software, hardware and/or firmware. A terminal may include or be associated with other devices, for example a local data storage device such as a hard disk drive or solid state drive.
An information source can include a server, or any type of terminal, that may be associated with one or more storage devices that are able to store information or data, for example in one or more databases residing on a storage device. The exchange of information (ie. the request and/or receipt of information or data) between a terminal and an information source, or other terminal(s), is facilitated by a communication means. The communication means can be realised by physical cables, for example a metallic cable such as a telephone line, semi-conducting cables, electromagnetic signals, for example radio-frequency signals or infra-red signals, optical fibre cables, satellite links or any other such medium or combination thereof connected to a network infrastructure.
In processing systems, and in particular, in networked systems, it is often the case that malicious entities may attack a user's terminal. Malicious entities can include malicious software, software threats, virus, trojans, cyber vandalism, or the like, where the malicious entity can be stored on the user's terminal, on a network, or a combination thereof.
In one example, a user accessing the Internet and viewing a website or the like, may be redirected and subjected to counterfeit information due to a malicious entity “hijacking” the user's requests for data via links on the website, via an address bar on a browser, or the like. A malicious entity may affect a user's request at the Domain Name Server (DNS) request level, or even if the information is correctly received and sent at the DNS level, by interception of the links on a displayed website pre/post presentation of the links to the user.
Domain Name Servers (DNS) accept easy to understand Internet Address strings, such as, for example, www.pctools.com into their unique numerical number on the Internet (Internet Protocol, or IP), in this case 210.15.241.16. Accordingly, when a user requests a website, they usually enter the domain name of the website in their web browser. A DNS server then translates the domain name into an IP address which allows for the website to be accessed.
Malicious entities may intercept a DNS request made by a system and send the user to an alternative illegitimate DNS. When a request is sent to the illegitimate DNS, then instead of returning the correct numerical Internet number of the computer to which to connect, the illegitimate DNS will return the address of another computer on the Internet which is illegitimate. Accordingly, this may cause the user to be directed to a website which is similar to the one to which they expected to be connected to, based on the type of link selected by the user, thereby causing inconvenience to or misleading the user.
Furthermore, following reception of data from a network containing links that are presented to the user in a browser (or some other form), and after a user has selected a link that is used as part of a request to be sent over a network but before it is sent, the opportunity exists for the links to be intercepted and changed by a malicious entity.
Thus, for example, a malicious entity may redirect a user by changing links on a legitimate page received by a trusted DNS, but prior to the links being displayed to the user. This can include attacking and changing the script of the page that is being displayed to the user.
In another example, the link on a webpage may be displayed and sourced correctly, however, after the user has selected the link, but prior to resolving of the link by a DNS request and the transmission of a request based on the resolved link, the link is changed by a malicious entity. In this case, it is often difficult to realise that a request has been made to an illegitimate DNS.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a method, system, computer readable medium of instructions, and/or a computer program product to provide validation for site data, which addresses or at least ameliorates one or more problems inherent in the prior art.